2017 Winners & Shortlists

The Campaign

Research has proven that toys play an important part in the emotional and social development of children, by providing warmth, comfort and security, and are viewed as a substitute by many children during their formative years. For the unfortunate few growing up without a family support system, these toys act as an irreplaceable device to help their development. But how could our mall goers assist in this, and be part of the effort to make a difference? Our ambition fit perfectly with the game of Pictionary, where the act of sketching is the essence of the game. These sketches usually result in laughter and teasing, but we decided to use them for a deeper, more meaningful purpose. Using this insight, we launched Draw a Smile, a campaign that turned Pictionary sketches made by families at the mall into handmade plush toys for the Red Crescent kids!

Creative Execution

We built an innovative, life-sized Pictionary gaming experience in 5 major MAF malls in the city. All aspects of the game came to life – sketch-pad, cards, dice, timer and even the game master! Teams were split into 2, a sketcher and a guesser. The game master would select a word from the colored card for the sketcher to draw, and the guesser had 40 seconds to guess correctly – creating some great laughs and moments. We shortlisted sketches from the game, and sent them to a grassroots organization in Thailand, employing rural women, to bring them to life as handmade, specialty plush toys! These toys were then gifted to the less fortunate kids from Dubai Red Crescent, at a specially-organized event at the mall, with each child receiving their very own Pictionary Plush Toy bought to life! The journey was shared in a 2-minute video on social media portals.

- 13,000 participants played Pictionary at our malls - Total impressions on the content piece on social media – 9.8 million - Received 1.5 million views in less than 2 weeks - Social media followers increased by 3.9 million

Majid Al Futtaim strives to create great moments for everyone, every day. While bringing families together at the mall for fun and memorable moments, MAF wanted to create great moments for the less fortunate kids. So we launched ‘Draw a Smile’ through one of the most beloved family board games – Pictionary! We took a non-traditional approach and brought Pictionary to life. For the first time ever, families could play the iconic game at the mall, in a life size, innovative manner and give their sketches life by turning them into plush toys for the less fortunate kids.

Insights, Strategy and the Idea

We worked on a two-fold strategy – one, to offer great moments to families across the city and, two, involve them to help us create great moments for the less fortunate kids. Our goal was to attract as many mall goers as possible to play Pictionary, and our media approach reflected the same. We used high reach and high impact media to ensure our audience was made well aware of the campaign, and of the opportunity to give back to society. We didn’t just limit people playing the game on ground, we gave consumers the opportunity to send in sketches via social media sites that would be converted to plush toys.